VICTORIA

Afternoon, Bastion Square, Victoria, BC, Canada. June 8: A group of performers entered the public square unannounced, one by one, joining into pairs or trios for a few minutes, and then performing solo. Each had their own object and their own form of vocalisation: lists, ambiguous sounds, songs, spoken texts. It was about things they needed to say; things needed to be said; sounds they wanted to make - societal, sociological, political, cultural, explorations, issues. It was mostly improvised. When joined in twos or threes, their sounds, songs or words were synchronised. In this place filled with locales and tourists from every corner of the world, they performed for an hour and exited in reverse order, leaving behind objects they had brought with them for their own reasons, but were ones they wished to give away or abandon.

The initiator and curator of this street performance, Judie Price, did not publicise it because she wanted them to be unexpected; for participants to seemingly appear at random in a specific location, disrupt the usual activity, then quietly disappear, leaving local residents and visitors wondering what happened and why. She was hoping that by shifting perceptual expectations of familiar spaces, their actions might contribute to the altering of the way people usually experience the world around them.

These are photocopied photos of some of the performances.